Free From Money

One of the steps to gaining control of your finances is to get your financial documents in order, and one way to conveniently save them is using your computer. But what about easily keeping those documents organized every month, so they’re there when you need them?

Enter Apple’s iTunes. Most people don’t know that iTunes has the ability to catalog PDF documents the same way it does with music files. But now you know, so let’s get to it!

Getting Started

1. I advise creating a password protected folder to store all of your documents in, since most of the files will have sensitive information like social security numbers and credit card numbers. With Mac OS X you can do this with the Disk Utility program. Create a new disk image, ensure that there’s enough space for all of your future documents, and select AES-128 encryption (and make sure you remember the password!)

2. Next you will want to create a new iTunes library so last year’s tax returns don’t get mixed in with your Rage Against the Machine collection. On a Mac simply hold the Option key while you click on the iTunes logo (hold shift on a Windows Machine), and it will give the option to select or create a new library. Choose to create a new library in the disk image you just made.

3. At this point you should have a clean iTunes library, and you can begin to import any PDF documents you have stored on your computer that you want cataloged. After your documents are in you can begin to rename them and create customized folders using the playlist option. Once this is done you will have most, if not all, of your documents in one handy location.

With Mac OS X you can easily convert any document to a PDF by simply printing the document and selecting PDF in the lower left corner. I am not sure if Windows has a similar option (anyone care to comment or leave a suggestion?)

Tips for Organization

1. Make use of iTunes categories. I used the artist title to label whether the document belonged to my wife, a joint account, or myself. The genre category can be used to label a document as bank statements, credit card statements, tax documents, etc. You can also put in the year of the document.

2. Use Smart Playlists to further organize your documents. For instance you could create a playlist of the credit card genre to separate your credit card statements into a separate group. Or create an artist playlist to separate each person’s documents.

Other Considerations

Adding a scanner to the mix will allow you to convert virtually any paper document you have into a PDF document saved on your computer, greatly increasing the system’s effectiveness.

Bankrate.com has a guide on what documents to hang on to and for how long. I would also add your annual credit reports to that list, and would keep them for 10 years or longer. Keeping a copy of insurance documents like renters or homeowners insurance might be a good idea in case you need to quickly find them to file a claim.

You don’t have to limit yourself to financial documents. Any PDF format document that you want cataloged, like favorite articles or e-books, can be saved in this library.

There are a few downsides to using iTunes over other document organization solutions.
• iTunes only accepts PDF files, so no Word or Excel documents.
• While the financial documents library is open you won’t be able to listen to the music in your main iTunes library
• You will have to switch between libraries every time you want to access one or the other. After the initial setup you will probably only have to access the secondary library once or twice a month, but it’s still an annoyance.
• While iTunes will open PDF documents, it doesn’t read them. You will need a separate program to view files, which means more programs taking up computer resources.

Despite the downsides, iTunes is still free, so if you think getting your documents in order is a good idea it’s worth trying out. And don’t forget to backup your files!